Orbit Black
Orbit Black is a Tournament Edition alliance that was founded in Round 2 by Sarasate. At first, Sarasate aimed to create a sub-alliance that branched off the then-major alliance of M*A*S*H, which was led by BoomerisGod. However, this concept clearly did not work. As such, Orbit Black began its development as its own alliance. In its early days, Orbit Black was an all-Black-team alliance that included a small number of members. Although it was, as mentioned, small in numbers, its members were loyal beyond measure. Aided by Sainted Madness and Eyerack, amongst other members, Sarasate managed to slowly increase the size of his alliance. In round 4, thanks to an extraordinary Minister of Recruiting (whose name escapes my mind), Orbit Black suddenly jumped to being the 4th largest alliance in all of TE, with well over 80 members. However, the time after that was a downward slide for OB. In round 6, soon after the above mentioned Minister of Recruiting left, the alliance's numbers plummeted to a mere 40+ members. Between round 6 and round 8, the alliance degenerated into what it once was; a small group of nations that were incredibly tightly knit together. However, "degenerate" is perhaps the wrong vocabulary to use, as this small group, consisting of Sarasate, Eyerack, Jarvis, Bis, Gary8, and a few others became the foundation for the next phase of Orbit Black. Until round 12, Orbit Black acted as any other alliance consisting of its number. It declared alliance wars, went through several treaties, recruited some members, and lost some members. (It also became a multi-colored alliance in an effort to increase its numbers.) During this time was the important relationship that developed between Orbit Black and the Phoenix Federation (later to become the Phoenix Cobras). United by alliance wars, dealing with rogues, amongst other issues, the two alliances treated each other as though they had a Mutual Aggression and Defense Pact, even after the original treaty expired. Also at this time, Orbit Black's leadership went through a few nation rulers, including Sarasate, Qazzian, Gary8, and Eyerack. All of them kept their closeness with the Phoenix Cobras, which was lead by Burning Glory. And so started round 13. Having been thoroughly humiliated by the Parrot Pirates alliance at the end of round 12, Orbit Black resolved to strengthen its alliance. This began as a mass-recruiting rampage, as Sarasate took the position of Minister of Recruitment under Eyerack, who succeeded the position of leader from Qazzian. The alliance quickly grew from a mere ten members to an astounding 43 members in 2 days, resulting in Orbit Black's sanction as an alliance, which had not happened since round 6. After several days, the alliance reached an incredible 67 members, enjoying the boon that sanctioned alliances have in terms of recruitment. However, this success did not last long. Soon, the alliance known as the Warriors attacked Orbit Black in an excellent blitz. This was at the same time that RE was attacked by Pork Shrimp, the Flying Kiwis, and NAC, and TPC (w/ the Multi-colored Cross-X alliance) was attacked by Lafayette Escadrille. Although OB had the advantage in numbers, it was full of inexperienced players (one of the side-effects of expanding so quickly), had a lower average NS, and were poorly prepared for war. Thus, they had little hope of standing up to the slightly smaller, but much more war-experienced alliance; the best they could hope for was a draw. They achieved this after 5 days of bitter fighting; during this time, OB's overall NS plummeted below the Warrior's, their average nation strength became under 1000, and the numbers of nations in anarchy grew to about 30; to be honest, quite pitiful. However, the Warriors were slowly dragged down as well, as their NS slowly decreased, and the number of their nations in anarchy reached over 10. Although it was a bitter war, both sides reached peace, and a new respect was found for each other through fighting. (RE declared defeat to the bloc facing them, and TPC/MCXA reached a white peace with LE as well). After this war, the election that had been going on in OB finally reached a conclusion. The results were as such: Leader: eyerack Minister of Foreign Affairs: Cooke28 Minister of War: hawkeyee Minister of Recruitment: sarasate Minister of Internal Affairs: Jarvis While going through a slow process of recovery from their war with the Warriors, OB was repeatedly tech-raided by the War and Hate Bus. Due to the coordinated, organized manner of the raids, Orbit Black decided to declare war on the smaller alliance. In just two days, more than 2/3 of the smaller alliance was sent into anarchy... which, after a few days, settled down. The WAHB had no government, and thus, no coordination. However, because of their superior average nation strength, they were able to severely weaken the upper echelon of Orbit Black. Despite this, OB left the WAHB devastated, and eventually, peace was reached between the two alliances. About a week later, though, a new crises had emerged. Orbit Black's ally, the Phoenix Cobras, had been attacked for a second time by Lafayette Escadrille. As the fight was not going well at all for TPC, OB decided to join the fray, throwing its lot with TPC, despite its continuous wars. After 3 days of intense warfare, the 3 alliances came to a white peace, despite the fact that LE had gained the definite upper hand. Some theorize this as an act of courtesy on LE's part, as a considerable number of TPC's top nations had turned out to be ghosts, and left the alliance as soon as they became aware of a war, thus substantially decreasing both TPC nuclear weaponry and nation strength. As OB had lost many members, as well as a giant portion of their NS, they plan to recover, grow, and expand, to meet the needs to produce a satisfying end-of-the-round war... After this eventful round came the demise of Orbit Black, Eyerack left and left the alliance with no formal leadership, this is when Cooke took charge of the alliance. And though reasonable attempts were made, the alliance disbanded shortly thereafter. The next Planet Bob heard of Oribit Black was a declaration of war by the 12 members of OB against the 12 strongest alliances in TE at the time. This was taken lightly. However, though OB's time of power has ended, Cooke and Sarasate have rejoined to create an alliance called Orbit Resound. The primary goal of the alliance is to be large enough to warrant a DoW instead of just being raided.